Explosive growth of new heads!

[duberii]

I just wanted to share this- I got this dendro almost 2 years ago, and I had it slowly grow 2 smaller heads in the first year. Recently, though, I saw this:

That's a solid 7 heads, all with some substantive skeletal growth! My duncan has developed about 6 nearly full-grown heads in 6 months (with about the same skeletal growth as the second largest dendro head), but for duncans, that's more expected.

My turbinaria probably grew around 12 heads, which has completed the circle of polyps around the base skeleton.

My blasto, which was my first coral (meaning I've had it for 2 years), has shown really disappointing growth, with absolutely no growth in terms of new polyps for about a year and a half. Howeevr, in the past 6 months, I'd say there has been amazing growth. about 15 heads- the largest being the size of a dime, has developed, which is a shock after a static lifetime.

Anybody have similar stories of tame then explosive growth for corals? I know growth for corals tends to be exponential, but it's always crazy to see the growth- feel free to post your pictures here.

 

[ludnix]

That's awesome! It's great to see dendro's growing and multiplying! It's not always easy making sure you're consistently feeding them but growth like that doesn't happen without nutrients!

 

[duberii]

That's awesome! It's great to see dendro's growing and multiplying! It's not always easy making sure you're consistently feeding them but growth like that doesn't happen without nutrients!

At first I didn't think they ate as much as they did. What I did notice was that when I fed them, they opened up more. I kept feeding them until they were open for the majority of the day. I could probably feed all of those heads a cube of mysis every other day at my current rate. I go back and forth between pellets and mysis because they eat mysis faster but it's easier to get them to grab onto pellets. I just can;t wait to have a mound of dendros- I think those colonies are so beautiful but they're way out of budget for people like me

 

[Kellie in CA]

I feed mine quite a bit and they look huge and healthy, but have never put out new heads. I can't figure out why.
I've always been scared to overfeed them because I have heard they are prone to gut rot.

Like how much do yours eat in a day?

 

[duberii]

I feed mine quite a bit and they look huge and healthy, but have never put out new heads. I can't figure out why.
I've always been scared to overfeed them because I have heard they are prone to gut rot.

Like how much do yours eat in a day?

I feed mysis and give them as much as they will catch. I feed with the flow off, then turn it on after about 10 minutes- at that point, anything they don't want to at will be blow up, and since I have a scooter blenny, it picks away at the remaining mysis before it has a chance to break down. Mysis is pretty nutrient light for its size, so I think the danger of gut rot comes along with more nutrient-rich coral pellets and such. I've never had an issue with gut rot and I feel like I overfeed them from time to time.

Another thing is that if they eat to much, they'll spit it out. I've had that happen once or twice, so I skip a day of feeding then resume feeding.